Playdate

Ch 2~ Yard Sale

4 pm Thursday

The sign reading "Yard Sale" sparks interest in the young boy. His earphones playing a podcast. With his hunt for more dolls still in progress, he decides to drop by.

As he's walking down the street he spots a girl, looking roughly the same age as him. She walks straight past him, not looking up from her phone, in her own world. He stops and looks back, doing a double-take. He notices something sitting in the tote bag she's holding, a tuft of blonde being visible out of the bag. He moves his head around a bit, trying to get a good look at the girl he's never seen at school. She looks familiar, but he just assumes she's from a different crowd.

He steps foot onto the driveway and begins looking around, only one earphone on at this point. He finds an old book that he looks at for a bit until he turns his head, bright orange hair catching his eye. With that he walks up to the creepy little doll in overalls, thinking his head is perfect for his art project.

"Hi, Jake. 20 bucks for that. Sounds fair?" Ms. jolly asks

"20 bucks?" Jake replies unsure of the price.

"Well, it's gotta be worth 20 bucks right?"

"Hey, where'd you get this?" He changes the subject.

I have no idea. Must have been my daughter's I guess. Honestly, I don't remember. You into vintage?" She asks.

"No, I'm into retro."

"Oh, what's the difference?"

"About 10 bucks." He smiles.

She chuckles and shakes her head. "Fair enough. You know, a girl who looked around your age was here not that long ago and said the same thing. She has the other doll similar to yours, brand-wise at least. Maybe you know her." she laughs again.

Putting two and two together, he realizes she's talking about sidewalk girl. He says "maybe." and hands Ms. Jolly a ten, then they thank each other before he heads home to rip the doll's head off.

He opens the door to his room happy that he's in the comfort of it. He greets Binx and places the larger doll on his desk. After turning his back to put gloves on, he begins the process of trying to remove its head, only stating "Two heads are better than one, right?"

After struggling to remove the doll's head, Jake brings out a scalpel, ready to slice it off. He is stopped when the doll begins talking, in its robotic animated voice.

"Jesus Christ, Jake, another frickin' doll?" His dad looks at the doll on the counter.

The doll repeats its name and one of the many catchphrases he has.

"It's voice-activated. Hey, I was thinking about using his head for the sculpture. What do you think?" Jake asks his dad.

"I don't know. I'm no art critic."

"Well, I'm not asking for a review, Dad. I just want to know your opinion."

"It's cool, Jake. Still think you're spending too much time on it. Wouldn't hurt you to get out of this room every once in a while. Maybe you could, uh, ask a girl to a movie. See a friend or something. Could even ask- what was her name again? Alice?"